TURKISH EX-DEPUTIES BEING RETRIED OVER KURD CONNECTIONS<br />


TURKISH EX-DEPUTIES BEING RETRIED OVER KURD CONNECTIONS

  • 15-01-1996 14:30:00   | Armenia  |  World News
ANKARA, Jan 15 (AFP -NT) - Four ethnic Kurdish ex-parliamentarians appeared before a special court Thursday in connection with alleged links to Kurdish rebels after an appeal court earlier quashed convictions against two of them. The four are former deputies of the pro-Kurdish Democracy Party which the Turkish Constitutional Court dissolved in 1994 because of separatist policies. In October, an appeal court confirmed sentences of 3-1/2 years each imposed on Sirri Sakik amd Mahmut Alinak and quashed sentences of 15 and 7-1/2 years imposed respectively on Ahmet Turk and Sedat Yurttas. They had been found guilty of assisting an illegal party, the militant Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK), which is campaigning for an independent Kurdish state. All four face retrial before a special state security court under a recently modified anti-terrorist law. Accusations of human rights abuses by the Turkish authorities, including their treatment of the Kurds, have overshadowed Turkey's relations with its European neighbours. ce/hc/gd AFP /AA1234/111456 GMT JAN 96
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